Press drive means



June 29, 1955 E. w. woRTHlNGToN ETAL. 3,191,531

PRESS DRIVE MEANS Filed May 24, 1965 4 Sheecs-Shee'fl 1 ATTORNEYS June29, 1965 E. w. woRTHlNGToN ETAL. 3,191,531

PRESS DRIVE MEANS Filed May 24, 1963 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTORS EMORY w.W0W'IINGTONI SeRL EDWARD BRITTON QM@ @M7/mm 7477:'2/41,

ATTORNEYS June 29, 1965 Eiw.woRTH1NGToN ETAL 3,191,531

PRESS DRIVE MEANS Filed May 24, 196s 4 sheets-sheet s 1 lis l l un 5 IlI Q \:'Q w g l I t s; s: 2 h 'JD u, a S a l l f Y IHIl w Q gg Tg1 m a 2D J g |05 n |111", a n im l ,i`-+', 3 f@ 1 Q q (f5 l` l 5 f 0 I/"w Q s a8 1 O I fa' p ".3 y @fr 7 :E *T- l l @E Il I i El?? i la- I. Q 1 I I 1 yl WM Ll.. I

ll INVENTOR EMoRY w. woRTHlNG oN EI(L EDWARD BRITTON M4 wfw @41,1 @M

ATTORNEYS June 29, 1965 E. w. woRTHlNGToN ETAL 3,191,531

PRESS DRIVE MEANS Filed May 24, 1963 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 'IIIWII hmm FIG. 5W\ INVENTORS EMORY w. WORTHINGTON EAB. EDWARD BRITTON /n-qla lh/MTQM/00L ATTORNEYS Floor Level United States Patent O 3,191,531 PRESSDRIVE MEANS Emory W. Worthington, Ridgewood, and Earl Edward Britton,Piaintieid, NJ., assignors to Wood Newspaper Machinery Corporation,Plainfield, NJ., a corporation of Virginia Filed May 24, 1963, Ser. No.232,909 Claims. (Cl. 101-219) This invention relates to rotary printingpress drive apparatus and more particularly relates' to novel drivemeans for selectively driving and reversing the printing rolls of highspeed rotary presses and for driving the press inking rollsindependently of the printing rolls.

Printing presses used in rotary presses, such as those used for printingnewspapers, have for many years had drive means for driving printing andinking rolls which included a number of vertical shafts and associatedgearing arrangements mounted on and driven by horizontal main driveshafts. These types of drive means have proved to have many limitationswhen used on present high speed newspaper presses.

The drive means of our invention provides a unit which is compact,versatile and introduces a minimum `of gear backlash during theoperation of the presses in printing color wherein the printing rollsmay have to be reversed in direction of rotation.

Drive systems of prior art presses include vertical shafts for drivingthe inking rolls which are positioned at the sides of the presses thusrequiring that the presses have a greater overall width to accommodatethese additional shafts. The present invention eliminates the necessityfor vertical shafts to drive the inking rolls thus reducing the width ofthe press. Presses including the drive system of our invention take upless space and permit more presses to be installed and operated in agiven space.

The present invention overcomes the difficulties and limitations ofprior drive systems in that it provides a compact drive unit forselectively driving and reversing the printing and inking rolls of thepress which system has ease and flexibility of operation.

Broadly, the present invention comprises a horizontal main drive shaft,an inking roll drive shaft parallel tothe main shaft, direct drive meansconnecting the two horizontal shafts and at least two vertical shaftsfor engaging and driving the printing rolls. These vertical shafts aredriven off the main drive shaft through reversible gear means which arecapable of selective operation to rotate the vertical shafts in adesired direction.

In accordance with our invention the inking roll drive lustrate apreferred embodiment of our invention, in

which: i

FIG. l is a side elevation View of the press unit illustrating thegeneral loc-ation of the press rolls and drive,l

means;

FIG. 2 is a partial sectional view illustrating the mainY drive shaft,the inking roll shaft positionedaboveand inward of the main drive shaft,a reversible gear and associated control me ans;

FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. l which illustrates in rice the axis ofthe main drive shaft illustrating the control means for reversing thegear means whereby the vertical shaft may be stopped or rotated ineither direction.

Referring to the drawings in detail and in particular to FIGS. l, 2 and3 it is seen that the single press unit 1 is driven by a main driveshaft 3 shown positioned in the gear housing 5 which in turn containsreversible. gear means 7' and 9. While only one press unit isillustrated, it is to be understood that the shaft 3 may also drivesimilar units positioned along either side of the unit shown. Reversiblegear means 7 and 9 `drive respectively vertical printing roll driveshafts 11 and `11a which in turn drive printing rolls 13 and 13a of theprinting roll couples 15 and 15a. IPlate cylinders and impressioncylinders are represented in the figures by A and B respectively. Sinceshafts 11 and 11a and the reversible gear means and printing rollsassociated with them are identical in construction and operation,corresponding elements are not further described rand are hereinafterdesignated in the figures using the suffix LL Vertical shaft 11 issupported by thrust bearing units 17 and journal bearings 19and isdriven in either direction through a bevel gear 21. Shaft 11 in turndrives printing roll 13 through means of a pinion bevel gear 23 and aprinting roll gear 25. t

An inking roll drive shaft. 27 is driven by a direct drive means 29which includes sprockets 31 and cha-in G3 which is guided by` tensionsprocket 35. Inking roll drive shaft y27 is supported in journals 37 andhas worm gears 39 at each of its ends which in turn engage fountain rolldrive gears 41 to drive fountain roll `#t3 and the inking roll group 4S.

Reference is made to FIGS. 4 and 5 which illustrate in detail the gearhousing 5 by which the vertical shaft 11 may be selectively reversed ordisengaged. The drive shaft 3 is rotatably mounted in the housing bybearings 47 of conventional struct-ure and positioned at right angles tothe shaft 3 is the vertical shaft 11. Shaft 11 extends through theopening 49 in the top wall of the housing and is rotatably mounted insuch wall by means of bearings 51. In order to assure proper alignmentof this vertical shaft with respect to the drive shaft, a raised collar53 is secured to the top Wall of the housing and is provided withbearings 55 for engaging the shaft at a point spaced longitudinally fromthe first bearings 51.

A plate 57 is fixed to the lower end of the vertical shaft and has afixed bevel gear 21 secured thereto by screws 59.

Meshing with this bevel gear at diametrically opposite sides `of theshaft 11 are two drive pinion gears `61 and 63 which are rotatablymounted within the housing by means of bearings and 67. The outerperiphery of the pinions 61 and 63 are provided with inner race members69 and 71 While the housing is provided with outer race members 7 0 and72 fixed concentrically with respect thereto so as to provide suitablespaces for the -antifriction elements 7 3 and 75. Although the pinions61 and 63 are concentrically mounted with respect to the drive shaft 3,they are spaced therefrom as shown at 77 and 79 respectively.

In order to rotate one or the other of the drive pinions 61 and 63, thepinions are provided with internal gear surfaces 3 1 .and 83,respectively. These gear surfaces 81 i and 83, as shown in FIGURE 4, areadapted to cooperate greater detail the arrangement of the horizontaland vertical shafts and the associated bearings and gears;

lFIG. 4 is a sectional view illustrating in detail a reversible gearmeans .operatively connected between the main drive shaft and a verticaldrive shaft; and

FIG. 5 is a side elevation view taken perpendicular to with spur gearsand S7 mounted on the opposite ends of a sleeve 89. Sleeve 89, in turn,is positioned between the two pinions 61 and 63 and is splined to driveshaft as at 89. Sleeve 89 is keyed to main drive shaft 3 so that itcannot rotate relative thereto, but it may be shifted along thelongitudinal axis of the shaft by means of a spur gear clut-ch member91.

Clutch member 91 comprises a retainer cage 93 provided with an outerrace member 95 encompassing the sleeve intermediate its ends. Acooperating inner race member 97 is positioned concentric with respectto the outer race and, Ifix-ed to the outer periphery of the sleeve anddisposed between these two races, are suitable antifriction elements 99.It will -be noted that the 4outer race 5 has an outside diameterslight-ly less than the inner 'diameter of the retainer cage so that itmay move within the cage. Extending outwardly from opposite sides of theretainer cage are stub shafts 161. These stub shafts are journalledwithin opposite legs of a yoke yMP3 by means of ,suitableL bearings 105.VThe opposite end `of the yoke is Y keyed to a shaft 137 one end ofwhich is journalled within a wall of the drive unit housing and theother end of which extends through an vaperture 1599 in the oppositewall thereof. This extending end of shaft 197 is, in turn, provided witha gear 111 in meshing engagement with a gear 113 fixed to one end of acontrol shaft 115. The other end of the control shaft is provided with ahandle 117 or other suitable means for rotating it in either a clockwiseor counterclockwise direction.

The operation of the drive unit constructed as set forth above is asfollows. Assuming that the drive shaft `Sis rotating in a clockwisedirection as viewed in FIG. 5 and the sleeve 39 has been positioned bymeans of the control shaft 115 in neutral position out of'engagementwith both of the pinions as shown in FIGS. 4, then the drive shaft 11will remain stationary. If it is desired to rotate shaft 11 in aclockwise direction as viewed from the top of FIG. 5, the control shaftwill be rotated in a counterclockwise direction as viewed from the topof FIGS to rotate the yoke 103 about th'e axis of the shaft 107 and movethe sleeve 89 to the left from the position `shown in FIG. 4.v Rotationof the yoke 103 will effect sliding straight line movement of the sleeve89 on the d-rive shaft 3 due to the fact that the outer race 95 isspaced from the retainer cage as described above and such movement ofthe sleeve to the left will effect a meshing of the spur gear 87 withthe internal gear surface 83 of the pinion 63. Pinion 63 which is inengagement with the bevel gear 21 will thereby effect rotation of thedriven shaft in the desired clockwise direction. To rotate the shaft 11in the opposite direction, control shaft 115 is rotated in a clockwisedirection to shift the sleeve 89 to the right 4and thereby clutch spurgear 85 to the pinion d1. y

Reversible gear means 9 has the same construction and operates in thesame manner as gear means 7 and therefore the foregoing description isnot repeated with respect to means 9. While each gear means isoperatively connected to the main shaft 3, each means is independentlyoperated through control means including a control handle 117 positionedat press room floor level.

The particular constructions shown in the drawings allow the inkingdrive shaft 4to be positioned parallel to the main drive shaft and abovethe rnain drive `shaft su-ch that it need not extend beyond the sidelimit of the press as in conventional presses having vertical inkingroll drive shafts. As a result the press takes up less overall space,which, in the event that a press must be designed for particular spacelimitations, -for example, a replacement for a press in an existingbuil-ding, could be a critical factor.

Another feature of our invention is that the drive unit is designed insuch a manner that the amount of accumulative backlash from the maindrive shaft to each printing couple is equal. Thus, when color runs aremade on our press unit the various superimposed colors are printing inmore exact register than was possible on prior press-es. The control -ofbacklash is accomplished by using two drive shafts, one shaft for eachcouple of the press unit. Newspaper printing presses are designed forreversed operation during the printing of color. When Iour press isreversed the gear backlash to each printing couple is equal since thegear arrangements to each couple are identical in construction. Priorart presses using single vertical shafts and associated clutchingarrangements to drive and reverse the printing couples have the inherentlimitation snaai 4' that when one of the couples is reversed thebacklash to the printing roll couples is not equal.

Another important aspect of the invention is the design of the reversinggear means. In particular it should be noted that the gear means includea sleeve which is slidably engaged to the main drive shaft so that itcan be moved to selectively engage either of the spur-gears which drivethe bevel gear mounted on the lower end of vertical shaft. The sleevepermits ease of operation in reversing the unit and provides multiplepo-ints of engagement with the spur gears thus reducing high pressuregear contact areas and giving more symmetrical gear loading.

Another feature is that the reversing gear arrangement is designed sothat the operation of the reversing gear means can be accomplishedconveniently from the press room floor level.

We claim:

1. A rotary type printing press unit having selectively driven printingand inking rolls, comprising a horizontal main drive shaft extendingoutwardly along one side of said unit, an inking roll drive shaftparallel to said main drive shaft and positioned inwardly of said maindrive shaft, unidirectional direct drive means connecting said maindrive shaft and said inking roll drive shaft, a plurality of verticaldrive shafts for driving said printing rolls, and reversiblegear meansoperatively connecting said main drive shaft and each said verticaldrive shaft where- V by said vertical drive shafts may be selectivelydriven to rotate said printing rolls in a desired drection.

2. A rotary type printing press unit of claim 1 wherein the direct drivemeans connecting the main shaft and inking roll drive shaft is anendless chain.

3. A rotary type printing press unit of claim 1 wherein the reversiblegear means includes in addition means to silence a selected verticalshaft whereby the printing rolls driven by said shaft are silenced.

d. A rotary type printing press unit having plate rolls, impressionrolls, and inking rolls; compris-ing a horizontal main drive shaftextending outwardly of said press unit along one side thereof, an inkingroll drive shaft parallel to said main drive shaft and positionedinwardly Vof said main drive shaft, unidirectional drive meansconnecting said main drive shaft with said inking roll drive shaft, aplurality of vertical drive shafts each engaging an impression roll fordriving the impression and a plate roll, and reversible gear meansconnecting said main drive shaft with each said vertical drive shaftwhereby said vertical drive shafts may be selectively driven to rotatesaid irnpressiony rolls in a desired direction and whereby said inkingroll shaft rotates in a directionV independent of the direction ofrotation of said vertical drive shafts.

5. Arotary type printing press color unit having a plurality ofselectively driven impression and plate rolls, a vertical drive shaftconnected to each impression roll for driving said impression roll, gearmeans connecting each impression roll to an associated plate rollwhereby the plate roll will rotate upon rotation of its associatedimpression roll, a horizontally extending main drive shaft positionedoutwardly of said unit, reversible gear means connecting each verticaldrive shaft with said main drive shaft whereby the direction of rotationof said impression rolls and plate rolls may be selectively reversed,inking rolls and unidirectional drive means connecting said inking rollsdirectly with said main drive shaft whereby said inking rolls willrotate in one direction independent of direction of rotation of saidimpression rolls.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 8/33 Roesen alOl-220 8/48 Riggs et al. Al01-2l6

1. A ROTARY TYPE PRINTING PRESS UNIT HAVING SELECTIVELY DRIVEN PRINTINGAND INKING ROLLS, COMPRISING A HORIZONTAL MAIN DRIVE SHAFT EXTENDINGOUTWARDLY ALONG ONE SIDE OF SAID UNIT, AN INKING ROLL DRIVE SHAFTPARALLEL TO SAID MAIN DRIVE SHAFT AND POSITIONED INWARDLY OF SAID MAINDRIVE SHAFT, UNIDIRECTIONAL DIRECT DRIVE MEANS CONNECTING SAID MAINDRIVE SHAFT AND SAID INKING ROLL DRIVE SHAFT, A PLURALITY OF VERTICALSHAFTS FOR DRIVING SAID PRINTING ROLLS, AND REVERSIBLE GEAR MEANSOPERATIVELY CONNECTING SAID MAIN DRIVE SHAFT AND EACH SAID VERTICALDRIVE SHAFT WHEREBY SAID VERTICAL DRIVE SHAFTS MAY BE SELECTIVELY DRIVENTO ROTATE SAID PRINTING ROLLS IN A DESIRED DIRECTION.